Page 125 - uji coba EBook INJE 1

and the shaking water. As the time had passed finally the speedboat was suddenly
launching from behind ‘the curtain of leaves’ and shored on the bank near our
location. Thank God again! The decision was quickly made: the first trip to ‘the river-
port’ had to be started rightaway where a long big boat had waited us overthere to
transfer us to the nearest village by sailing on the river for another 4 hours. The
speedboat would return to pick the remaining members of the groups until the last
part of the team was on board. The second decision was made again: the team would
transit, stay and spend the night in that village. It would be too dangerous to continue
sailing on the river during the night time. Wow, we had missed our lunch and, at that
evening time at the riverport, we had to skip again our dinner. Thank God for some
cakes and snacks brought by our team which could reduce our hungriness a little bit.
The journey was continued via a wide and large river to the nearest village
where the PNG military station was situated. The station also served as the local
immigration office. The sailing at night was so calm but nobody could really sleep
because sometimes some crocodiles showed up and floated on the water. Finally the
boat arrived and docked at the simple wooden jetty in the destined village by
midnight. All the team members, like a choir, exhaled the sighs of relieve and
exclaimed: “Hallelujah!”, tried to stand up with the totally-stiffed back and legs in the
still-shaken boat. The team had to stay and spend the night in an elevated on-pile
wooden house (rumah panggung) which was open in the 4-side with a rather short
‘rumbia roof’ almost covering the wooden floor. There was no chair, no table and no
4-leg bed. One could sit, lie down and sleep on the wooden-shelves floor but nobody
could stand up vertically. One had to bow him (her)-self when walking or just to crawl
on the floor. Wow, a really unique and unforgettable experience that God gave us!
The WC was naturally a dug hole in the land covered by several wooden shelves with
a small hole in the middle. It was situated somewhere outside under a tree and
shielded at 4-side with bamboo meshes. Surely not everybody especially the ‘city
people’ could use the ‘semi-natural WC’ like this for the concerned biological needs.

2017: Trip to Wandouw, PNG – The lake-and-weed area.